What are the ages of the members of your SMSF?

We are mid and late 60s.

Why did you start your SMSF?

I was offered redundancy from the Commonwealth public service in the late 90’s. Like most, we selected a financial advisor to assist and we established a superannuation wrap account, which provided some exposure to managing a portfolio of shares. This was great for a few years until we established that our advisor was doing pretty well from our money. We have a long-standing association with a stockbroker and, as a result of his suggestion; we decided to establish our own SMSF with the support of his company’s portfolio administration service in 2012.

How large is your SMSF?

About $1m.

Is it more, or less, difficult to manage than you thought it would be?

It is not difficult at all when you have the support of an administration service. Of course, this comes at a cost. I plan to retire at the end of 2016/17 FY and with the expectation of surplus time in the future, I plan to take a greater role in managing our funds both inside and outside our SMSF.

Do you enjoy managing it?

I enjoy working inside the fund, seeking out, studying and understanding company profiles and this is supported by Sky Business, the Switzer Report and others. Whether I enjoy the actual management aspect of tax and compliance is yet to be seen, but I am not planning to do this on my own either.

Are you pleased with the performance of your SMSF?

Yes we are. We have effectively doubled our money in five years, even with poor performance in 2015 and a negative result in 2016.

What is your asset allocation?

We have been reasonably consistent around 70/30 stocks and cash. We currently hold 18 stocks in our portfolio, mostly ASX blue chip companies. I am a Geoff Wilson fan and we hold a couple of his LIC companies both inside and outside our SMSF.

What investments do you have outside of your SMSF?

We moved house a number of years ago using a small bank loan and our surplus cash. We are now debt free and, as empty nesters, the opportunity to free up some cash is available should the need arise or we decide to downsize.

Additionally, we were fortunate to inherit a small share portfolio some years back, which has grown and been improved in the time since. This presented many valuable lessons in stocks and our local stock market. One of those lessons has been WAM. We started with a minimum investment at the time of their float and this small beginning has grown to a considerable sum using DRP (dividend reinvestment plan), converting options and buying opportunities along the way.

Do you use an advisor or any kind of service provider?

Yes, we have a long-standing connection with a stockbroker and we presently use his company to advise and manage our SMSF. Looking back it is clear their advice was invaluable in relation to insurance at the time we rolled my wife’s superannuation into the SMSF. They certainly saved us a lot more than their fee.

Great sources of information we use include:

• Sky Business – Your Money, Your Shares.
• Switzer Super Report, webinars, and website.
• Wilson Asset Management Weekly reports, webinars and road shows.
• Reports from our stockbroker.

Important: This content has been prepared without taking account of the objectives, financial situation or needs of any particular individual. It does not constitute formal advice. Consider the appropriateness of the information in regards to your circumstances.